Le Père Noël

Today, at the grocery store, I was busily loading my groceries onto the conveyer belt, and Tassia was talking to the checker as she was ringing up my groceries.  I couldn't hear what they were saying, but suddenly, the checker started laughing and turned to the checker next to her, "Did you hear what she just said?  I wasn't expecting that!" and then the other checker started laughing, too.  "Alors, qu'est-ce qu'elle vous racont, là?" I asked. ("So, what did she just tell you?").  "Je lui ai demandé si le Père Noël est passé... ("I just asked her if Santa Claus came...")  I didn't need to hear the rest to know what had happened.  I don't know about in the States, but here, adults spend their month of December asking kids about Santa Claus.  I don't know how many French kids actually really believe in Santa Claus, but I know the adults we have met are totally unprepared for Tassia's impish little grin and her impish little laugh and her, "Mais
le Père Noël n'existe pas!"  ("But Santa Claus doesn't exist!")  You should see their faces!  You'd almost think THEY were the ones who believed in Santa Claus and my little almost-four-year-old had ruined it for THEM!

Christmas 2012

Hole

After much crying, scream, and bleeding, Alina finaly lost her first top tooth.

Christmas Pageant

 Here is Joseph.

 Here is Mary.

 Here they are with an escaping Baby Jesus.

And here they are with a substitute Baby Jesus that doesn't move around so much...

A first

I played a concert last night.  That in itself is somewhat unusual, although it has become less so these last few months.  I was just playing along, enjoy the beautiful Gluck and thinking that my fingers are at last remembering how to play the viola.  It was a very nice feeling.  We came to the end of a phrase, and I had to quickly put my mute on.  As I did so...was I not careful in my haste?  was it the heat of the lights and things?  was it leaning already and I hadn't noticed?  Whatever it was, let me tell you that if your bridge ever pops out in the middle of a concert, it makes a terrific noise and you immediately become the center of attention.  I not-very-discreetly left the stage, and looked the situation over.  Fortunately, the bridge hadn't broken and the soundpost hadn't fallen, so it was a matter of a couple of minutes to put the bridge back in place, tighten up the strings, locate someone's tuner and tune, and re-tune, and
re-tune...and I was not-so-discreetly back onstage shortly after the beginning of the next piece.  After about 30 seconds, I had to avoid all open strings until the opportunity came to tune again, but things could've been a lot worse.

Heard in church

I couldn't figure out why, in the middle of church this morning, Sybille suddenly said, "Oo-nana, oo-nana, oo-nana", getting louder and louder each time.  But I shouldn't have been so dense.  We had just sung "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna," getting higher and higher each time.  Today, she also said, for the first time,
Barrette
Hair rubber band
Scoot me up

Confused?

I live in a country where all the roads are twisty, but paths through the forest are perfectly straight and intersect at 90° angles.

Climbing trees

Alina has 2 weeks of vacation, we've had some nice days.  What better way to enjoy it than to climb trees?  Oh, riding bikes is nice, too.  Especially now that Tassia has figured out pedalling.

Soup

Recently, the girls and I have spent some time looking through a picture book that an elderly lady from our church made for me when I was little.  She must have spent hours cutting out pictures from magazines and ads, and pasting them into a book for me.  There's a page that's mostly dogs, a page that's mostly cats, a page that's mostly dolls, a page that's toys...  I loved it, and so do my girls. Looking at this book has probably boosted my girls' American cultural awareness as well.  They can now recite some advertisement jingles from when I was a kid, which explains why Tassia greeted me yesterday morning with, "Campbell's soup is Mm Mm good."  To which Alina responded, "Mama, what is cannibal soup?"  She later explained to me that she said "cannibal" because it comes in a can, but that did nothing to diminish the humor.

And so it begins....

Alina just got a phone call from one of her friends from school.  Should Thomas and I just get our own separate phone line now, or can we wait a few more years?

6 for Alina

Alina turned 6 yesterday.  We had 6 extra little girls over for a party.  There was lots of screaming and giggling, and a good time was had by all.  Alina apparently overdid it though, because when she came home for lunch she had a fever, so I sent her to bed.  Joy, joy.

Stamps

Just a reminder to those of you who know, and a heads up for those of you who don't: The girls and I have started a stamp collection.  So, if anyone out there happens to open their mailbox one day and find a real, live letter (I know, I know, who sends letters these days?) with a real, live stamp on it, and doesn't already have a stamp collector to save it for, would you think of us?  We'd appreciate it.

Whose woods these are

This last picture was composed and taken by Alina!

C is for

 Cookie, of course!  I realized a couple of weeks ago (sorry this blog isn't more up-to-date) that Tassia was actually unclear as to what the letter C looks like.  So, we made a batch of C cookies.  Learning should always be so tasty!

 Um...Alina, that's backwards.  You're the one learning to read, right?

Sybille couldn't wait to take a bite out of hers!

Did anybody know

that , if you fill a sterilized jar half-full of quince sauce, put the lid on for fun to see if it would seal anyway, then turn it upside down with the rest of your jars, that somehow the cooling quince sauce will blow the bottom out of your jar?  I didn't either, until today.  Alina so optimistically told me, "Mama, it's good that that happened.  This way we'll know never to do that again."
 
She's right about not doing it again, anyway.

Concert pictures

As much as the journalist walked around on stage, I would have thought he could get better pictures than this, but here are the pictures from my concert.

Batter up!

TASSIA: (in the backyard, holding whiffle ball and bat)  Mama, you be the batter, and I'll be the ball-er.

Accomplished!

FLASHBACK: It's 1998. It is spring of my junior year of college. The university orchestra is playing at the ASTA conference. I'm browsing around the stands. I stop at the Rockley music stand (back when Rockley's still did other things besides pianos.) I rifle through their bargain bin, coming up with a couple of pieces that look interesting enough to spend a couple dollars on. One of them, titled simply Sonata in G, by some P. Ben-Haim that I've never heard of, catches my attention when I have time to look through it a bit more. Wow, this piece looks cool. Man, this piece looks HARD!!! Someday, I'll perform it. Someday...




BACK TO THE PRESENT: This piece of music with the faded green cover has followed me around through various moves over two continents and across an ocean. Sometimes, I'd dig it out and try and play it a bit, but between the demands of school, and then teaching, and one, then two, then three beautiful little girls, I usually didn't get very far. I actually learned the slow movement and performed it a few years ago. But, the first and last...whew, what a lot of work THAT would be. But so, so cool. Well, I played it on Sunday. All three movements. I was extremely, extremely pleased with how it went, and feel an extraordinary sense of accomplishment at having done so.



The person who organized the concert has promised to send me pictures, and if they're worth it, you'll see them.

Scatology

SYBILLE: Tip.
ME: Sheep?
SYBILLE: (Nodding.) Uh-huh.  Buh.
ME: (this word could mean a number of things, but considering that she was on the potty chair, I hazarded a guess)  Poop?
SYBILLE:  (Nodding)
ME:  Do sheep poop?
SYBILLE: (Smiling and nodding.)
 
OK....

Two and counting

Last night at dinner, for the first time, Sybille put two words together.  I don't know if you can call this her first sentence, but she said, "Moe tee," which, very obviously, means "More cheese."

World premier

Today in our house, we had the world premier of Sonata for Piano and 3 Small Children.  Aleatoric music at its best.

concert violon

Temple de Rouillé
dimanche 16 septembre, 17h
Les Amis de l'Orgue de Rouillé présentent
Dawn Constantini, violon
Michel Milhère, Orgue
 
Des cordes et des Tuyaux
Oeuvres de Bach, Rheinberger, Haïk-Ventoura, Journeau, Ben-Haïm
entrée: adhérents 10 euros, autres 15 euros
Gratuit pour les moins de 15 ans
 
Avec l'aide de la Commune de Rouillé et du Département de la Vienne

Hammy

Alina and Tassia were playing a pretending game today.  Alina was Tassia's Mama, and she was kissing her good-bye. 
ALINA: (Kiss) Good-bye, my little heart.  (Kiss again.)  Good-bye my little slice of ham.

Nantes

Lipstick

Tassia got out of bed early from her nap.  And this is what she looked like.  (The term "nap" must be applied loosely in this case.)

Finally!

It's been a whole year, so it finally had to happen.  In view of the concert I'm giving in September (the 16th at 5:00pm in the Reformed Church of Rouillé), I finally changed my strings.  I'll be getting my bow re-haired in the near future as well.  The fact that I'm not even sure when I got that done for the last time says a lot.  This afternoon, I also replaced the steel, harsh-sounding E string on our 1/10 size violin.  The two oldest girls in our house have decided this week that it is great fun to "play music school."  So maybe Alina hasn't definitively given up the violin, after all, and Tassia is eager to learn!  We'll see how long that lasts.

Poor, Neglected

Sybille.
 
Yes, Sybille is our third child.  This is why you haven't been getting the play-by-play, daily updates of her progress.  Here is where I attempt to make amends.  Because Sybille is growing and changing so quickly that I can hardly keep up with her.  Just today, she said the word book (she is her Papa's little girl!).  The biggest novelty was not so much that she said it as that it was distinguishable from the word ball.  Beu, as opposed to Ba.  She has used both those words repeatedly, often coupled with her own way of saying, "READ IT!", which sounds like da-da.  Also, today, she said "I love you."  I'd give you the phonetic transcription, except that I can't remember.  It had three syllables, and was accompanied by her throwing her arms around my neck.  It made my day.  Along with the traditional Papa and Mama (that she says Mamo), she also says Pongo, our cat's name: Ba-bo.  In fact, every cat she sees gets called Ba-bo.  Her new trick
is alerting me to a ringing phone by saying Ay-o and holding her hand up to her ear.  She will also say either Ba or O-Ah ("Bye" or "Au revoir") when taking leave of someone.
 
She still takes her beloved Jack with her most places.  She says his name, too, now.  He's starting to take on a life of his own, often eating food out of books, with much lip-smacking, or kissing animals or characters in books.  This is very noisy, as well.  She isn't completely fooled by the fact that there are two Jacks.  One has bigger eyes than the other, and she is always quick to point this out to me whenever she's given the big-eyed one.
 
Sybille is our little clown.  She has this way of cocking her head to one side, scrunching up one eye, and grinning that makes you realize that she's sharing a great joke with you.  She has no fear.  I recently took the girls to the swimming pool.  I have memories of Alina at the same age clinging to me with both arms and both legs, but Sybille had no problem laying out flat on the water and letting me trail her around just holding her hands.  She loved it!  In our little wading pool at home, she's actually slipped and gone under a couple of times.  She just shakes herself off, wipes her eyes, and continues right on playing.
 
She's becoming a Papa's girl.  Yesterday, she cried when he left the house with Tassia, and then insisted on being taken on the walk he took later.
 
She tries to do everything her big sisters do.  The scary thing is, she often succeeds!

Leavin'...

ME: (sending Tassia back to bed last night) Kiss me.
TASSIA: (kissing, then looking at me with a silly grin) and I smile for you.

It's uuuuuuuuuuuuussssssssssss!

Some picts courtesy of my dad!

It's Kummering

 Yes, it is Kummering here, as you can see by the raincoats, boots and puddles.

 What better thing to do when it's raining than to curl up on Grandma's lap with a book?

 Sybille, who in general wants nothing to do with Grandpa if she can help it, agrees to pose for a picture, anyway.

 See, it hasn't actually rained the WHOLE time!

 At our trip to the beach, we collected starfish!

 Grandma, Alina, and Tassia ran from the waves!

 All tired out.

We took Grandma and Grandpa to "see the art" at a local gallery.  I might buy this one.  Any bids?